Quotes – Page 4

January 6, 2016January 5, 2016

My Writing Mantra

One of the blogs I try to follow is WRITERS IN THE STORM. Their Jan 01, 2016 post What Word Will Guide Your Writing in 2016 by Orly Konig-Lopez was awesome. Click here to read.

When it comes to my writing, last year left a lot to be desired. I worked on two manuscripts but failed to complete either. As for my blog, well let’s just say I could have done better. With each disappointment, determination seeped away. Procrastination took the place of discipline. Writing became a chore. I felt edgy and unfulfilled.

I decided my word would be: REFOCUS

I recently finished reading a novel by Greg Garrett called Shame. Without going into detail, let me just say this was the perfect end of the year read. One line from the book stuck with me:

What could have been is the greatest enemy of what is.

I had a choice – I could continue to carry the weight of all those unrealized goals and expectations or I could let it go.

2016: A new year. A new slate. A chance to refocus, to give myself permission to selfishly guard my writing time. And I did it. Sunday, I set aside three hours and I wrote. It was wonderful and I felt like I could breathe again.

So how about you? Have you chose a word or phrase to guide your writing?

November 9, 2015November 8, 2015

My Perfect Day

Perfect days are hard to come by – but when they come along – you gotta dive in head first. Saturday was beautiful – sunny, highs in upper 70’s and a wonderful sea breeze. After being stuck inside all week, I had to be outside. I started with a visit to the river.

The hermit crabs were doing their thing, crawling over the rocks and each other.

While the North Carolina coast doesn’t get to experience much in the way of the changing of leaves, nature didn’t totally forget to paint our little corner of the world. We get wildflowers and berries and on occasion – something other than pine tree needles.

Boaters took advantage of the day, too. And while I’m sure this sailor was disappointed at having to be towed in, I loved watching the activity.

100_1435 — Sailboat being towed – New River

I met up with my writers group for lunch – that’s always a good time.

And then I took a detour – went back to my childhood and visited some precious memories.

I grew up on the water. My father was a commercial fisherman. I spent my summers hanging out at the fish house. After “heading” shrimp (actually de-heading them is more accurate), I’d go home, get into a swim suit and go back to the fish house where we kids would climb onto the shrimp boats and jump off the sides – swimming in the slough.

My father is retired now. My brother, however, is trying to keep the family tradition alive. He works as a school teacher, serves in the Army Reserves and in his spare time is repairing a boat my father and uncle built some 33 years ago.

100_1464 — My father overseeing my brother

There’s still quite a bit of work to do. The outriggers need to be painted, the fish hold needs some work and the wench needs to be repaired. But when they finish, she will be beautiful.